Director Alfonso Arau has disputed Debra Messing’s allegations suggesting she was pressured into an impromptu nude scene on the set of their 1995 movie A Walk In The Clouds.

The Keanu Reeves film was the Will & Grace star’s first big screen role, but it was an experience she would rather forget after being told she would be fired if she objected to stripping off.

Speaking at the MAKERS conference in California in February (17), she claimed Arau berated her when she tried to discuss the scene with him, reportedly stating, “Your job is to get naked and to say the lines. That’s it.”

Messing also alleged the filmmaker made her feel uncomfortable during the shoot.

“The whole thing was a power play, a game,” she added. “And the goal, to demean me, to strip me of my power and make me feel on a cellular level his dominance over me.”

Arau ended up only showing Messing’s exposed back in the film, and now he has responded to the star’s allegations, insisting her comments have “nothing to do with reality”.

He also took credit for Messing’s career, claiming he had plucked her out of obscurity to star alongside Keanu after being given the option of casting “many, many” other actresses.